Chicago Cubs Place Miguel Montero on the 15-Day DL
By Bill Pivetz
Just weeks after losing Kyle Schwarber for the season, the Chicago Cubs placed their catcher Miguel Montero on the 15-day DL.
The Chicago Cubs are off to their best start in over a century. The club currently sits atop the National League Central at 15-5. The Cubs lost their left fielder Kyle Schwarber early in the season, but the offense and defense looks good without him. Unfortunately, the team just took another hit. It was announced on Thursday afternoon that their catcher Miguel Montero will be on the 15-day DL. Here’s the fantasy fallout from the news.
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Montero wasn’t hitting that well in the first month. He has a .208 average with seven runs scored, one home run and six RBI. He missed last Thursday and Friday, but played Saturday and Sunday. He then missed Tuesday and Wednesday before the announcement was made.
It was announced that he’s been dealing with tightness in his back all week. He will miss at least two weeks. Montero will be eligible to return on May 10, because of the backdated DL stint. As a result, the Cubs catcher depth has been depleted.
Chicago will now go with David Ross, the catcher for the Jake Arrieta no-hitter, and Tim Federowicz, who was recalled from Triple-A on Thursday. In 23 at bats this season, Ross has seven runs, one homer, four RBI and a .261 average.
Federowicz played in 11 Triple-A games this season. He has one home run, six RBI and a .303 average. However, he will not be much of a factor in most fantasy leagues. Miguel Montero was owned in 33.9 percent of ESPN leagues, but has dropped to 20.3 over the last week. As I mentioned in my article about Travis d’Arnaud, there are some decent catchers still on the waiver wire.
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Hopefully, if you owned Miguel Montero, you had another catcher on your roster. He wasn’t play well enough to be the only one. Unless he suffers a big setback, Montero will be back around mid-May. So, you should be okay with whatever player you add for the next couple of weeks.